As we continue to grow, HASP staff and board members have been working with Hope College administration on necessary and exciting facility improvements. This process has included extensive review of membership surveys conducted in 2014 and 2017, focus group discussions and approval by the HASP Board of Directors. In June, we announced at our annual meeting that remodeling will begin this fall on a new home for HASP. This new space will be located on the first floor of Anderson-Werkman. This 3,000 sq. ft. space originally housed Career Development, which has since become part of the Boerigter Center for Calling and Career now in DeWitt Center.
Over the course of the summer, a HASP facilities committee has been working with the college and GMB Architecture + Engineering on the design and construction details. The clearing of the new space has already begun and additional construction will begin at the end of this month. The new space will include a welcome and kitchen area, library, staff work area, conference room and an additional classroom space with a soundproof partition to maximize flexibility. The classroom on the second floor will continue to be used for HASP classes. This addresses the current bottleneck on available classroom space and doubles the space available to deliver courses. We hope to take occupancy of the new space in January of 2020.
The money for this renovation is being provided by our HASP Facilities Fund. These existing funds were initially raised in 1997. Over time, this fund has grown through additional gifts from members, operating surpluses, and investments made by Hope College.
In response to feedback and requests received from members during facility focus groups held this past June, we are working on a timeline for fundraising efforts to engage every HASP member in securing our future by replenishing and building our HASP Facilities Fund. Additional members have offered their time and energy and have joined the HASP facilities committee to serve as a leadership team for this effort.
We are excited to share more with you about this project in the coming months and ways you can contribute. As always, we welcome your questions and feedback. Feel free to contact any of the committee members or Kim Mendels, Director of HASP, at 616.395.7919 or mendels@hope.edu.
Sincerely,
HASP Facilities Committee
Kim Mendels, Director of HASP; Barbara Stegink, HASP Vice President; Dave Vanderwel, HASP member; Scott Travis, Executive Director of Alumni Engagement; Kara Slater, Director of Operations
HASP Facilities Fund Leadership Team
Larry Lynn, HASP President; HASP members; Ron Mulder, Terri Holden, Barbara Stegink and Dave Vanderwel; Kim Mendels, Director of HASP